LOS ANGELES—Science fiction legend Ray Bradbury passed away last night peacefully after a lingering illness. Bradbury—heavily influenced by the ability of Edgar Allen Poe to draw people into his stories—is noted for a variety of story lines from warning to the hopeful. His Fahrenheit 451 and Martian Chronicles elevated him to the caste of such greats as Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. His most recent work is Now and Forever.

“In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create,” his publisher HarperCollins wrote in a statement to the press. “A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time.”

Rarely one to rest, Mr. Bradbury converted 65 of his short stories into highly popular television series The Ray Bradbury Theater. The author of a Playboy interview with him wrote:

Even at the age of 75, there’s something childlike about Ray Bradbury. He bounces with enthusiasm, he nearly always wears shorts and his homes are stocked with toys – from the statue of Bullwinkle that presides over the basement of his Los Angeles home to the nine-foot dinosaur that occupies its own bed at his desert hideaway.